Sunday, April 25, 2010

One of these days, I will actually be able to do work on our house solely because I want to, and there will be no "have to" part. The continued dearth of blog posts is again due to more work on the house, this time mostly because of exterior painting. As you know, I have a bunch of things that I am doing that are actually part of the construction contract. Because these items are part of the contract, and are thus part of what our bank based the home's appraised value, they have to be done by the final closing so that the bank knows the home is worth what they planned on. Still, what's the rush? Well, we locked in an interest rate a while ago, and that lock runs out on May 13. Due to paperwork reasons, our home closing has to be on May 7th (which it will be, at 2pm), and the final inspection of the home by the bank needs to be 3 days before that, on May 4th. So essentially I have to get my items done by next weekend (yikes!). Never fear; I'm on track thanks in large part to my Dad's help on the exterior painting.

On the builder's side, tomorrow they are starting the install of our driveway, and after that will come the concrete pads for outside doors and the concrete sidewalk to the front door. Then comes final grading, and also installation of gutters.

As far as pictures, I know if I were reading this blog I'd want to see some pics of the outside of the house, but at this point, after all the work painting, I refuse to post exterior pics until the painting is done. The exterior brick was installed last week, so when the painting is done the house will truly look complete from the outside. I can't wait to show it to you! I'll also post a video update, doing a walk-through of the interior of house now that we've moved in. By no means are we settled, but at least there's some stuff where it's supposed to be.

Now, on a random note, Molly and I just recently went to our first baseball game at the Twins' brand new ballpark, Target Field, and I thought I'd throw in a few pics. For Minnesotans, this ballpark is a huge deal as we finally get to have a great urban baseball experience, and see baseball the way it should be: outdoors! Last Tuesday was 72 degrees and calm at game time... heaven on earth!

First a pic from the Target Field web site showing what the exterior facade looks like, clad all in Minnesota limestone. The design of the ballpark is actually quite modern, which I liked in the final product.

Here's an aerial rendering of the ballpark. Downtown Minneapolis is actually to the rear of this particular view. Two different train systems actually connect right to the ballpark, which makes it very accessible and well-designed. You can see the light-rail transit train just off left field.

Here's Molly and I at the game...

The view...

A few more angles...

What's baseball without food? I had a Polish sausage and Molly had a steak sandwich...

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Molly and I will be gone for the next three days on a trip to Georgia... Augusta, Georgia, that is. A few months ago Molly's mom called to inform me that I had won the 4 tickets to the first two rounds of the Masters in the school fundraising raffle for St. Hubert Catholic Church in Chanhassen, MN! I forgot I had even bought a ticket, and (as a very avid golfer) I am thrilled to have this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to go to the Masters with Molly and my parents.

In the middle of having a brand new house with a billion things that need to be done, it's not necessarily ideal, but somehow we'll manage :-)

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Purpose

This is a weblog of the Koop Family, located in the Twin Cities of the great state of Minnesota. This blog tracks the conception, design, and construction of our home in Ham Lake, MN, a truly custom home dedicated to the nurturing of the family as the "domestic church" (Ecclesia domestica). Our goal is to create a home that prefigures our eternal home, and fosters the raising of children who will become saints in the kingdom of heaven.